Thursday, 17 October 2024

Rural and Regional Journalism and Photography Awards

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (10:07): I would like to congratulate the winners of the 2024 Rural and Regional Journalism and Photography Awards held in Bendigo last Friday. It was great to see journalists from across Northern Victoria acknowledged, including Allan Murphy from the Sunraysia Daily; Darren Chaitman from the Euroa Gazette; Darren Howe from the Bendigo Advertiser; Chris Earl from the Loddon Herald; Emma D’Agostino, Danielle Bonica and Josie Taylor from ABC Central Victoria; and Madeleine Stuchbery from the Weekly Times.

Media has a very important role. In politics it is to provide transparency in government, and this is a government that loves media headlines. Credit where credit is due, over the last decade they have been really good at it. It is keywords like ‘blitz’, ‘big’ and ‘free’ that still attract plenty of media coverage. Last weekend they spruiked a major road funding blitz using the same media release from the past three years, and plenty of news outlets ran the story without question. Their Big Housing Build is more like a big fail, and despite 60,000 people on the social housing waitlist they seem more focused on demolishing homes than on building them. They like to spruik free kindergarten and forget to talk about the many millions of dollars being spent by local councils and ratepayers trying to deliver it.

At the awards a journalist said this state government is very secretive, and I certainly agree. We are seeing that with the refusal to provide documents about the Commonwealth Games. Journalists have a very important role, and I thank all those who look for the details beyond the catchy headlines.